Disciplining lane hogs/Sunday drivers?

This is a discussion on Disciplining lane hogs/Sunday drivers? within Shifting gears, part of the Around the Corner category; Ok I agree with the whole discussion. But I'm going to take an example from this morning. Not from a ...

Ok I agree with the whole discussion. But I'm going to take an example from this morning. Not from a highway but large(r) city roads. At 7 am nobody cares if its a highway or not. I was doing just over 60 and an innova comes from behind honks away to glory at me does not wait for me to get past the vehicle I'm overtaking and wildly swerves into the leftmost lane and almost hits me coming back to the right as I was moving into the center lane. Now who is the moron him or me? If he's doing 90 and impatient who needs the discipline? And this was on the main road parallel to mgroad near cariappa park. He did the same on the old airport road too! I guess its also a question of which side of the fence we are looking at it from. The person overtaking or the over taken.

The rule of overtaking from the Right Hand side would strictly apply on the highways. It never works inside city.

But few people still try to flash lights and honk with high beam in a narrow road and force others to make way for them to overtake you. They will be speeding above 60's and 80's while you are on steady 50's and on speed limit.

Today, I ran into an idiot on his Scooty hogging the right lane on JC Road. Despite honking a couple of times and flashing my lights, the guy just kept tottering along on his purple thing. I was forced to get into the left lane and I gave him a cold stare. To which he pulled up beside me and began to shout!

That led to one of the weirdest conversations I've ever had with anyone on the road! All I had to say: "There is nothing wrong with the speed you are doing, but why are you blocking everyone else's way?". Needless to say, he was silent after that.

Umm, there are some uncle drivers who stick to their comfort level on the expressway, driving at 70 kph on the rightmost lane.

So even if the speed limit is 70 or mebbe 80kph, the "uncle drivers" must still vacate the right most lane so that the speed demons can break the rules and drive at a 100? I mean come on! I cant believe someone actually said that!

Reckless drivers are just that: reckless! People should stop using uncles or aunties as an excuse for their reckless driving.

This is one of my pet peeves. We may have three lane, four, five, six,.... lanes but until and unless we follow lane discipline, throughput of the road will be low, traffic jams will be more. We are just not utilising the full capacity of the road efficiently. It may be two lane or three lane; does not matter. An autorichshaw and a lorry (or tractor in NCR) moving at 30 kmph side by side on a two lane road blocks vehicles behind it. This has a cascading effect. Farther ahead, another pair of vehicles will repeat similar scenario. So a car driver who wants to move fast but within legal speed limit, is seriously held back.

Sometimes you can swerve, someitmes there is no space for that. Only very few give way to faster moving vehicles. Your honk and flash a few times. Most often it has no effect, you have no choice but to overtake from left if there is space! Maybe they see themselves as traffic speed regulator . Aunty jis / uncle jis / bhayyas / bhenjis they are all the same.

Quote:

Originally Posted by COUGAR

Reckless drivers are just that: reckless! People should stop using uncles or aunties as an excuse for their reckless driving.

Fast driving does not equate reckless driving. People who stubbornly stick to right most lane at low speed are forcing others to overtake from LHS, which can be dangerous.

As for the guy who wants to do 100+ in a 80 limit zone, what speed s/he wants to drive is his choice/compulsion/problem. You are not the traffic regulator. You don't give way, s/he will still overtake from left, which is more dangerous, for him and other road users.

Encountered a chronic lane hog near Hiriyur on the Blr-Pune highway a week back.
Typical morning on this sector with mostly sparse traffic and a few clusters of slow moving behemoths. I was doing triple digit speeds when I spotted a few trucks a km or so ahead staggered across both lanes with the left lane guys doing about 60kmph and the 'fast lane' chaps overtaking at 62kmph.
There was also a NHC lazily zigzagging across overtaking the trucks.
I can never figure out why some guys insist on overtaking at 70 kmph in 5th gear on an expressway.
So I flash my lights at this guy.
That seemed to bring out the beast in the NHC guy and he sped up and started to weave from lane to lane overtaking the trucks, determined not to let me overtake.
Almost out of the sea of trucks, this guy figures that he's now going to pull a bollywood style overtaking maneuver by pulling hard into the slow lane behind a truck and squeeze into the fast lane just in front of the other truck before the gap closes.
Unfortunately he mistimed it and realised that he was heading at 90 kmph for the back of a truck doing about 50 and the other truck in the fast lane had now closed the gap.
I was treated to a spectacular screeching smoking halt as he managed to just avoid ploughing into the back of an overloaded lorry.
Most lane hogs seem to have an inferiority complex of some sort.

I know exactly what you are talking about and NH8 is really where you see this species in its natural habitat. Lane discipline is truly lacking. Golden rule on indian roads : Don't drive, just save yourself!
Many times i have encountered 2 trucks doing roughly 50, occupying 2 lanes, trying to overtake each other. Ridiculous! Then when you try and overtake from the other lane, there is a battered indica doing 55 in it.

The most fun i had on NH8 was on the opening day of CWG, it was empty, no hazards. Was doing 160+ consistently on right lane in my w124 from delhi to gurgaon.

The biggest problems on the highways are 1.Lorries and buses that consistently drive on the right most lane, and 2.Slow moving tractors and autorickshaws that always occupy the middle lane. Ideally, bus/truck drivers should be disciplined to drive on the centre lane and auto/share auto/tractors/bullock-carts should be banned from highways.

But everyone must respect speed limits. They are stipulated for a reason. If you want to illegally drive well above it, it is your choice and indulge by all means, so long as the road is empty. But slow down and negotiate patiently if you encounter traffic and don't expect royal treatment from other road users. Here we see one guy bragging about doing 160 + KPH from Delhi to Gurgaon! Come on, that is plain illegal man! I don't believe such speeds are allowed even on US highways. This is akin to posting subjects such as street racing, which I believe is prohibited under TBHP rules!

It is quite funny to watch a set of rule breakers frowning upon rule observers, discussing among themselves about how to end the "menace", fretting and fuming in the process!

On a divided highway, rightmost lane is meant for overtaking only. Not for puttering along, whether below or above the speed limit.
I think this is the main problem that most people have with the right lane hoggers. Whether they are driving at 60 or 80 or 120, consistently staying in the rightmost lane is plane wrong.

Remember, even if you are driving at 120 KPH (which is illegal), you are supposed to drive only at the middle lane and the right lane is just for overtaking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitoj

On a divided highway, rightmost lane is meant for overtaking only. Not for puttering along, whether below or above the speed limit.
I think this is the main problem that most people have with the right lane hoggers. Whether they are driving at 60 or 80 or 120, consistently staying in the rightmost lane is plane wrong.

I quite agree with you. But look at the description applied to people doing 80 KPH ( in other words, observing the speed limit) in some of the posts - "puttering along, ambling along", etc!

I quite agree with you. But look at the description applied to people doing 80 KPH ( in other words, observing the speed limit) in some of the posts - "puttering along, ambling along", etc!

Guilty as charged, Sir!
But you know what they say. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"
The thing is, even if they are observing the speed limit, they are still in the wrong by sticking to the rightmost lane.

We can't "discipline" them on the road. That's just not going to work. The only way possible is have change in our licensing system and education relating to road rules & manners. Only once it comes from such a level will we be able to see a change on the road.

Today morning @ 7am while coming to work I could see on the Cadbury flyover in Thane all the three opp lanes occupied by slowly moving heavy trucks. Also seen were a Sumo, a sedan & a couple of bikers stuck behind these trucks venting their frustration by repeatedly honking & blinking. The worst part was these trucks were actually gasping to climb the flyover blocking the entire traffic behind them.

Had they kept atleast one lane free the traffic behind could have moved fast. Most of the lane hogs do believe that they have the total right to move in the right most lane at insanely slow speeds and our administrations actually supports them.

I am yet to see any signs for the lane allocations in the city roads. On the EE highway I have seen a couple of boards where they show lane allocations for cars in the first, bus/trucks in the second and bikes in the third. Hardly I see anyone following them.

The biggest problems on the highways are 1.Lorries and buses that consistently drive on the right most lane, and 2.Slow moving tractors and autorickshaws that always occupy the middle lane. Ideally, bus/truck drivers should be disciplined to drive on the centre lane and auto/share auto/tractors/bullock-carts should be banned from highways.

But everyone must respect speed limits. They are stipulated for a reason. If you want to illegally drive well above it, it is your choice and indulge by all means, so long as the road is empty. But slow down and negotiate patiently if you encounter traffic and don't expect royal treatment from other road users. Here we see one guy bragging about doing 160 + KPH from Delhi to Gurgaon! Come on, that is plain illegal man! I don't believe such speeds are allowed even on US highways. This is akin to posting subjects such as street racing, which I believe is prohibited under TBHP rules!

It is quite funny to watch a set of rule breakers frowning upon rule observers, discussing among themselves about how to end the "menace", fretting and fuming in the process!

Listen "bro", Legality is quite a futile term (considering most of our laws are quite archaic and plain stupid). Being practical and rational is what its all about.
Im not encouraging anyone to try these speeds if they are not comfortable. Only do things that you can control (and have the car for it too), because otherwise you are just playing roulette.